Apple takes double beating from Motorola in Germany

Apple will be rueing the German legal system today after its iCloud services took a whack from Motorola, while also being forced to remove iPhones from online stores.

The two separate cases amount to a bad day in Bavaria for Apple after a Mannheim court ruled that the ‘push’ email service was indeed infringing upon Motorola’s patents. Push email is a synchronising feature which allows the instant updating of emails to mobile devices.

The ruling – a permanent injunction – means that Apple will have to remove the service or will be barred from selling iPads and iPhones using it.

It is thought that the decision to pull Apple products from sale was not related to this decision, however, according to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller. He believes that it is due to a FRAND patent dispute dating back to the end of last year relating to 3G technology.

Although the latest Apple handset, the 4S was not affected, the iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G have all been removed from sale. The handsets will still be available from stores, but it is likely that Motorola, and the company in the process of buying it – Google – will be rubbing its hands with glee anyway.

According to Mueller, it looks like Motorola has decided to go ahead and post a 100 million euro bond, though it could lose out on this if Apple is successful in appeal.

Motorola’s decision to assert its FRAND patent, which are generally recognised as industry standards, will not be picked up by an EU inquisition. Earlier this week Samsung began a grilling by European Commission investigators regarding its own use of FRAND patents against Apple.

However, with Google already in hot water with the EU over antitrust claims, it seems that officials are waiting before applying the thumbscrews to Google’s new toy.